Much Interest in Big Data, But There Are Fewer Companies Investing In It

The big data has become a crucial element for companies. Companies have to be able to accumulate data and use them in the best possible way to achieve better meet consumers make better business decisions and be able to anticipate the needs of its customers and requests that they have service and new products. The data have become a sort of element that can make the success or failure of a company and its strategy.

But the data are not available to everyone, or at least that’s what it seems at first glance. Large companies, those questions both muscle and reach, manage to accumulate much more data are in a more privileged position than that occupied by the smaller companies that do not have easy access to information and they do not have so easy to accumulate data.

It is a somewhat logical question. As the size of a company grows, so does its potential number of customers and their actual customers, which makes potential data at your fingertips are much greater and the possibilities that can develop when playing with the data being even higher.

The issue is not limited to data and possible have access to, but also is marked by another element, the monetary. In order to succeed in the world of big data, brands have to make a prior investment. Expenses are varied and touch many areas as companies need to sign specific talent, they need to make an investment in technology infrastructure because, even though the cloud has made the least expensive prices, brands need room to store all that data and need, also, the technology required to read and manage these data.

The investment has grown, but not interested companies

All this means that despite everything there is a border between those who can and who are unable to take benefits of big data. There is more to look at, in fact, the latest study by Gartner on the issue to see it. The overall grows of investment showing that this tool has great potential for businesses.

What do the numbers say? As noted in the findings of the Gartner, investments in big data continue to grow (although starting to show signs of shrinking market) and, although investments are on the rise, the number of companies willing to invest in this tool is going down.

Overall, 48% of companies have invested in big data for 2016, representing an increase of 3% over the previous year. If you look who plan to do so in the near future, things are not so buoyant. The percentage of companies planning to invest has risen from 31% in 2015 to 26% in 2016.

The key is what

Why they have decided to reduce their investment and not as enthusiastic as in the past? The key may be in the technology itself, paradoxically. “The investment in big data is growing, but the study shows signs of a slowdown with fewer companies considering investing in the future,” says Nick Heudecker, research director at Gartner. “The big problem is not so much data as to what use,” he says.

That is, the brands have understood everything you have told about how important the data, but once you have passed that stage, have been stalled. They do not know what they are these data and how to use them. “Although companies have realized that the big data is not just about a particular technology, need to avoid thinking about the tool as a separate effort,” said Nick Heudecker. The marks are still in a kind of nebula, in which they know that the data is good for some things, but they have nothing clear yet general use and, above all, how they can integrate it crosswise.

Companies should make a holistic approach to efforts but have not yet managed to cross that border.

Brands are stuck in the pilot phase

Perhaps for this reason, brands have been stuck at the beginning of the story. Companies have been in the early part of big data and have not gone beyond, have failed to leave the beta. Three-quarters of the companies surveyed by Gartner are, in fact, investing or have invested in big data, but most are still stuck in the pilot development. Only 15% have come up with the production stage and only 14% have a strategy and implementation so solid that has not had to change it in the last year.

And like a snake biting its own tail, all these realities are closely related. This impacts all of the above and this happens because the marks are not prioritizing data as well as other issues the big. Only 11% said that their investments in big data are as important as or more important than the rest of the investments made in IT. 46% puts them on a lot of the less important.

The fact that they may not see a clear ROI of this investment (again, cause and effect at the same time all these movements and adjustments) makes companies are even less enthusiastic in their spending on big data.